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Harold Macmillan Quotes
1894–1986 England
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton OM PC (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative politician and publisher who served six years as Prime Minister (1957–1963). As Prime Minister, he worked to decolonize the British Empire in Africa and repair United Kingdom–United States relations after the Suez Crisis.
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18 quotes
We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down before the divine right of experts.
Forever poised between a cliché and an indiscretion.
Nonsense, there are no clubs around Victoria.
First of all the Georgian Silver goes, and then all that nice furniture that used to be in the salon. Then the Canalettos go.
America is “the new Roman empire and we Britons, like the Greeks of old, must teach them how to make it go.”
It's a good thing to be laughed at. It's better than to be ignored.
It is not enough to deplore and condemn the political excesses and the economic inadequacies of the totalitarian states. We must prove that democracy can do better.
The Middle Way (1938)
I rather enjoy patronage. I take a lot of trouble over it. At least it makes all those years of reading Trollope seem worthwhile.
I have long realised that the great figures in my old party have long ago given up Toryism and have adopted Manchester Liberalism of about 1860.
I'd like that translated, if I may.
The masses now took prosperity for granted... The country simply did not realize that we were living beyond our income, and would have to pay for it sooner or later.
I cannot forget the twenty-five years when I sat for a Tees-side constituency. I cannot forget those terrible times when some 17,000 out of 25,000 able-bodied men in my constituency walked the streets looking for jobs.
It is very common with individuals or estates when they run into financial difficulties, to find that they have to sell some of their assets. First, the Georgian silver goes, then all that nice furniture that used to be in the saloon. Then the Canalettos go.
We must rely on the power of the nuclear deterrent or we must throw up the sponge. (1957)
We do not intend to part from the Americans and we do not intend to be satellites. I am sure they do not want us to be so. The stronger we are, the better partners we shall be; and I feel certain that as the months pass we shall draw continually closer together with mutual confidence and respect.
A Foreign Secretary—and this applies also to a prospective Foreign Secretary—is always faced with this cruel dilemma. Nothing he can say can do very much good, and almost anything he may say may do a great deal of harm. Anything he says that is not obvious is dangerous; whatever is not trite is risky. He is forever poised between the cliché and the indiscretion.
Sixty-three years ago I went to Stockton-on-Tees to stand for Parliament. The unemployment figure was then 29 per cent. Last November I went there to a party of my friends—the unemployment is 28 per cent. That is a rather sad end to one's life, but that is what has happened.
Response to a journalist when asked what is most likely to blow governments off course.
Disputed
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